Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My holiday
card and art seeds have been sent all over the world and, though it wasn’t
the specific plan, some are coming back to me incorporated into new art.

RF Côté
incorporated the art seed into a postcard that came back from Québec.Suus in Mokum went
three-dimensional and added some crochet action.Artist
in Seine (aka Mark Dean) got my piece.What came back was a global collage with bits from England,
France, Turkey and Iraq.It came
through the mail as is, with air freshener glued to it.A note indicates that the air freshener
was found on the streets of Baghdad.I am slightly embarrassed to report that the air freshener made it all
that way only to become detached in my backpack on the way home from the post
office – I have since reattached it.

I won’t give away all
my secrets, but here is a little tip.Interior Latex Wall Paint, you can buy a quart at the paint store and it
lasts a long time.I use it as the
base paint for boards and canvases for most of my mixed media work.It’s inexpensive and when dry it takes
glue and acrylic varnishes well.Also, when doing a series of pieces, it gives you a consistent color on
the edges of all your finished pieces.Save the expensive tubes of acrylics for where it really gets seen.These boards are being prepped for my
upcoming show this summer.

Friday, January 24, 2014

I will be returning to San Francisco’s Glama-Rama Salon and
Gallery this year with a new show.It will be an exhibit of my current series of Collagescapes.All the pieces are mixed media work
where landscape painting meets collage.Some examples of the work can be seen at tofuart.com

On the upper level of Glama-Rama, at the same time, I am
curating a companion show of mixed media works, where the theme will be Collage
meets Landscapes.There is a strong preference for local, Bay Area artists,
though out-of-town artists will be considered.

Theme: All pieces
should fit the theme of both collage/mixed media and landscape.

Size: All pieces
must not exceed 12” wide x 16” high (including frame).Please note: All pieces in the show will be original works, digital prints will not be considered.

Date of exhibit:July 29th to
September 29th, 2014.

Deadline for submission*: April 30, 2014.Accepted
artists are to be notified via email by May 15, 2014.

Sales of Art: A 40% commission on all sales with 60% going to the
artist. All works sold must remain at Glama-Rama for the duration of the
exhibition. Payment will be issued to the artist within 30 days of the close of
the exhibition.

To submit work:

Artists may submit up to three works for the exhibit and up
to two images per piece.The
images must be in .jpg format and no jpeg should exceed 1mb in size.Files should be clearly labeled with
the artist name and piece title (e.g., smith_collage_green.jpg)

With your submission please include the following:

·artist
name

·title
of piece(s)

·medium(s)

·size (pieces must not exceed 12” wide x 16” high)

·year
completed

·price
(if for sale)

·artist
contact information, email

·artist
location/address

·artist
website

All submissions should be emailed directly to me at tofuart@hotmail.com with the word
“submission” in the subject line.Submissions made directly to Glama-Rama will be disregarded.*Update May, 1, 2015:Submissions have closed and the list of participating artists will be announced on or before May 15. Thank you for submitting your work.

It excites me that completed cards for the Millennia Mail
Art Project are still coming back to me.Soon it will be two years since the first cards were mailed out.This one took a trip through Brazil
with contributions from Ana Marta Austin,
Edna Toffoli, Regivane and
Adelça R. da Silva.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Bodie is one of my favorite “hidden” places in
California.A well preserved,
ghost town and state historic park
– it’s a bit remote and far from any interstate that it never feels crowded and
it’s always worth a visit when I am over in California’s “VIP Lounge.”It also inspires me to paint.In the latest piece for my collagescape series I
wanted to capture the colors of the dry grass, bricks, rust, old wooden walls
and the gray of the galvanized metal.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The sun goes down on one year and rises on another as 2014
begins.And as the air has been so
dirty in this rainless winter, we have had some amazing sunsets.I’d prefer some clear air and
rain.

Here is the first piece for 2014 that I have been working on
the last few days and finished this morning. Making my own collage material for
my new collagescapes, this time cutting up the pieces and configuring them in
the Mandala pattern I have used with maps, stamps, MUNI Fast Passes and other
source material.

About Me

I am an artist living in San Francisco. I work primarily in mixed media, collage and landscape painting. My work has included maps, postcard-themed art and mail art projects. In 2013 I began a series called Collagescapes where I start painting paper with areas of color representing the palette of a specific place. Next I cut the paper into hundreds of small pieces, randomize the pieces and then reassemble them in various geometric patterns. Collagescapes are both landscape paintings and collages. They appear abstract but retain the color palette of the places they represent.
My new series is Time Travel Photos — handmade photo collages showing places in San Francisco where I have cut and sliced present-day photographs and interwoven photos of nature representing how the City looked before Europeans arrived. Each is an image of an urban space with the natural past emerging through. For example, creeks once again run through the Mission and dunes reappear in Golden Gate Park and tidal flats fill the Embarcadero.
My work has shown in over 40 venues, primarily in California but also in other locations in the United States and abroad. My artwork can be viewed at tofuart.com